Missing Hiker Found Alive After Surviving 50 Days in Canadian Wilderness

A 20-year-old hiker who went missing in the remote Canadian wilderness has been found alive after surviving on his own for a staggering 50 days, officials said.

Sam Benastick was reported missing on October 19 after he failed to return from his 10-day camping trip in British Columbia’s Redfern-Keily Provincial Park, according to CBC News.

He was finally found on Tuesday morning when two men who were heading to the Redfern Lake trail for work saw another man walking towards them, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a press release.

Benastick, though alive, was weak and supporting himself with two walking sticks and had his sleeping bag cut up and “wrapped around his legs for warmth,” CBC reported.

Including his original 10-day trip, the young camper was in the mountainous, remote park for a total of 50 days as temperatures dipped below freezing. 

“Sam told police that he stayed in his car for a couple of days and then walked to a creek, mountain side where he camped out for 10-15 days,” RCMP officials said. “Then moved down the valley, and built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed.”

As the weather reached -4 degrees Fahrenheit while Benastick was missing, Prince George Search and Rescue search manager Adam Hawkins told BBC News, “Those are very difficult conditions for really anyone to survive in, especially [with] limited supplies and equipment and food.”

“You know, the guy says he’s in rough shape. But man, for 50 days out in that cold, he’s going to live,” said Mike Reid, who manages the inn where Benastick’s parents stayed for more than 20 days while they looked for their son. 

Over 120 volunteers joined the search along with RCMP canine and aerial units, but police called off the official search effort on October 28, CBC reported.

Despite this, his mother did not give up hope, telling the outlet on November 1 that Benastick had taken warm gloves and a hat, rainwear, a hatchet, and “a lot of peanut butter.”

“He didn’t go unprepared,” she said.

“Finding Sam alive is the absolute best outcome. After all the time he was missing, it was feared that this was would not be the outcome,” said RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson.

An image taken by Benastick’s mother and posted by the Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue Association shows the odds-defying hiker recovering in a hospital bed with his thumb up and a smile on his face: